


The Tomb of Tibo Rontes

by wyvernwood



Category: Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic (Video Game)
Genre: Archaeology, Come Eating, Khem Val is obscure, M/M, Masturbation, Rare Male Slash Exchange Treat, Talos is pedantic, They believe the Inquisitor is dead
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-05
Updated: 2019-08-05
Packaged: 2020-07-29 08:41:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20079352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wyvernwood/pseuds/wyvernwood
Summary: Talos Drellik and Khem Val explore the tomb of long-dead Sith Tibo Rontes. Each discovers something new and interesting about the other in the process.





	The Tomb of Tibo Rontes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [venndaai](https://archiveofourown.org/users/venndaai/gifts).

How had a military archaeologist found himself in a tent on an unnamed planetoid in the Outer Rim without even the remnant of a nearly extinct alien race who had been his companion? Talos Drellik used the stylus to mark down the details in case his remains were found by some future visitor. 

He carefully calculated the year in all twenty-three calendars he was familiar with, then the day of the year for each. Whoever found the datapad should be able to determine when he had died, if, as seemed increasingly likely, it was in the very near future.

Then the details of how he had come to be here. The death of his patron, Darth Occlus, who had been a member of the Dark Council and also a true scholar. Talos missed the conversations he had had with her over wine about all the tombs and reliquaries that were recorded but had never been found. She had wanted to track them all down, especially those whose inhabitants were strong in the Force.

Darth Occlus had died along with most of the rest of the Dark Council in the attack by the Eternal Empire. Revel had departed soon after that, angry that Xalek and Ashara had not been willing to risk their ship and their lives attempting to rescue their leader. Her apprentice, Lord Xalek, had then announced that keeping Occlus's Dashade familiar was too risky. He did tend to want to eat Force users, Talos would admit, but he did not think that the Dashade would have actually eaten Xalek or Ashara. Probably he wouldn't have.

Ashara would have made sure Talos was allowed to continue with her and Xalek. They had always gotten along. She was surprised when Talos decided to accompany Khem Val. But she understood after a while. The archaeologist had made a study of the Dashade and being separated from one of the last remaining of this antique race would be too great a loss. 

"You are more attached to him that I had realized," Ashara said as they parted. "I wish you well, Talos. I sense you and Khem Val have many discoveries to make together." 

She had given him a strange look, then, one Talos had no idea how to interpret. He had not made enough of a study of the Togruta, perhaps. But there were plenty of them left; they were nowhere near as high a priority to learn about and preserve the history of as the Dashade.

Xalek had wanted to simply drop Talos and Khem Val at the nearest Imperial base once he had made the decision. But Talos requested and Ashara prevailed on him to drop them at a specific place, one where he could commandeer a small freighter on behalf of the Imperial Reclamation Service and thereby ferry himself and Khem Val to the locations of Dashadi historical artifacts.

Because Khem Val had a mission. When Darth Occlus had been killed, he had explained after careful questioning by Talos that he now must return to serving Mistress Death, and that he needed to find and consume Jedi to grow in power. He also needed to hunt down certain artifacts that would also grant him more protection so that he would be able to face the witch, by which term Talos was aware he meant Darth Zash. 

Talos was fairly certain that Darth Zash's ghost, safely imprisoned in a Rakata technology ghost-cage, would not be troubling them, but Khem Val was even more certain of the precise opposite. It was one subject where Talos had decided that he should feign agreement with the Dashade to keep the peace between them. Otherwise he was likely to be killed by his own study subject.

Usually, and rather to his own surprise, Talos was not at all afraid of the Dashade. The creature was objectively fearsome. He was huge and impervious to most damage. He was also violent at the least provocation, willing to kill anyone who crossed him, incredibly strong and much better at stealth than a creature of his mass and volume had any right to be. Yet the not especially prepossessing archaeologist felt safe with him. 

It was perhaps a case of familiarity and habit. Talos and Khem Val had worked together for years, now, with no incidents. Not exactly _no_ incidents, Talos corrected himself. More precisely, with only a couple of incidents very early on, misunderstandings that Talos hoped were now well behind them.

Aboard their little freighter the two of them had made their way to the tomb of Tibo Rontes. He had been a notable Sith of more than half a millennium ago, and he had also been a collector of Dashadi artifacts. There they had encountered a pair of young Jedi robbing the tomb. Khem Val had made quick meals of them. 

Then Khem Val had ventured down a tunnel that had closed behind him before Talos could follow. The strange sigils on the barrier were nothing he had seen before, at least, not that he could bring to conscious memory. Though they did stir a niggling sense of familiarity at the back of his mind. 

He had waited for hours and no sign of Khem Val. Unable to go further, he had returned to the tent they'd set up before going in. But he was sure that the Jedi who'd been eaten would be missed, looked for by their own kind, and without Khem Val to defend him, it was going to be a one-sided fight that Talos was going to lose. 

In order to distract himself from the near-certainty of his fast-approaching demise, Talos reviewed the lore of Tibo Rontes and his contemporaries. The Dashade rarely ventured away from their home planet of Urkupp in his time, but they were not then legendary as they had become after Urkupp's destruction. Rontes had pursued the esoterica of Khem Val's people, especially the physical Force-imbued artifacts they revered.

By stealing from Urkupp, Tibo Rontes had done Khem Val and Talos a favor; his crimes had preserved objects that otherwise would have been destroyed along with the Dashade's homeworld. These were items that Khem Val needed. Talos had not yet been able to pry the secret from the Dashade of _why_ he needed these things, but eventually he would. In the meantime he would be able to learn a great deal from the artifacts themselves. 

If he could retrieve them and the Dashade as well before Jedi showed up to murder him.

It turned out he couldn't, but they didn't.

When the Jedi arrived, there were two of them, a Kel Dor and a Nautolan. Hideous creatures both, Talos thought, even uglier than the Dashade and with much scrawnier bodies. Still, they were Jedi and therefore terrifying. He pretended they were not, of course. It was unprofessional to show fear.

The Jedi greeted him and asked him to surrender his weapons. Talos stated he was an Imperial archaeologist and should be left alone due to the treaty between the Empire and Republic. 

That treaty no longer held, but he thought perhaps the Jedi would believe that he thought it still did. They played along and did not tell him otherwise. When the Nautolan's hand moved to her lightsaber, Talos unbuckled his holster belt and set his blasters on the ground. He requested to retain the blaster in his boot in case of wildlife attack, but the Jedi insisted on complete unilateral disarmament. 

Instead of killing him, the Jedi allowed him to engage them in a discussion of the various sites of archaeological interest to be found and explored on this planetoid. He did not tell them the whole truth, but managed to convince them that Tibo Rontes's tomb was the most interesting ruin to be found and that he would be an invaluable and innocuous source of information should they bring him along. 

Talos discovered that the Kel Dor Jedi had a copy of letters that Tibo Rontes had written to another Sith bragging of his latest acquisitions and how they would adorn his future resting place. 

As he was reading the letters a final piece of the puzzle fell into place. Talos knew at last the purposes of at least two of the artifacts the collector had found, how to activate one of them from outside the tomb and get to Khem Val. Then together he thought they'd probably be able to get out again with what they needed.

* * *

The two Jedi had allowed Talos to accompany them to the tomb. He had then shouted the Dashadi phrase he had prepared, and the ritual altar artifact he'd read about in the letter had activated, transporting him to land atop it. 

He looked up at Khem Val from his position supine on the cool stone of the artifact. It had begun to glow around the edges where Dashadi runes were carved into it. 

"What have you done, asker of questions?" This was the nicer of the nicknames that Khem Val called Talos by. 

"I've figured out what this object is for," Talos said. "I used it to join you so we could retrieve these artifacts." 

"I did not need your help to find what I needed," Khem Val told him. 

"If you didn't need my help, why were you still in here instead of following me back to camp and then taking your treasures aboard our ship?" Talos asked logically.

"Asker of questions," Khem Val said, "it is true that I had not yet found the exit from the tomb of this Sith. Even so, I did not need you to offer yourself in this way."

Talos tried to get up off the altar. He was unable to. "Perhaps I missed something in my interpretation of the letter Tibo Rontes wrote," he said, concerned that his old mentor would think him foolish to activate an alien artifact with so little preparation.

"You called out that you were ready to be taken," Khem Val said. "Your interpretation seemed to be correct. I do not have need of this. I did not expect it. Your scent is not edible."

Startled, Talos's voice dipped and rose. "My scent?" He thought about it for a moment. "Do you mean because I'm not Force sensitive, you don't want to eat me? That's just as well. I don't want to be eaten."

"But you have offered yourself." Khem Val walked around the altar and tried to lift Talos off it. Even his strength was not enough. Yet Talos wasn't uncomfortable, didn't feel _stuck._

"There are two Jedi here with me," Talos offered. "Not here in the room, obviously, but they brought me back to the tomb and are out there looking around I think. They're probably edible smelling." He would be relieved if Khem Val ate them. Jedi really made him nervous.

"Not until the offering is taken up will the doors open again," Khem Val said. 

That was what the letter had said, too. Talos had thought this meant he would arrive on the altar, take the offering whatever it was, and then they could leave. He had expected to see the offering when he arrived. He had not expected to _be_ the offering, which it seemed was what had happened.

Yes, his mentor Auselio Gann would be disappointed in him. Then again, perhaps not. Gann had, after all, died imprisoned in a tomb he had trapped himself in while trying to fight his enemies using its traps. Maybe he would expect no less of Talos.

"Your flesh does not smell of power. I do not wish to consume it." Khem Val loomed closer over Talos. "There may be little choice. If I do not accept the offering, you will be bound."

"It's not like I'd be better off as a meal," Talos pointed out.

"The offering is only -- a small portion. The tip of your finger will suffice."

Talos was fond of the tips of all his fingers. But having one of them eaten would be better than what he'd thought Khem Val meant, at least. He thought about the options. "What if you ate some of my hair?" he suggested. "That would be easier on me than a finger."

With two of his claws, Khem Val lifted a few strands of Talos's hair. "This portion of you is dead," he said. "The offering must still have life."

"What," Talos began, his mind racing ahead, "is the purpose of this ritual?"

"It is one of the rituals that determines the suitability of Dashade for certain life events," Khem Val said, atypically evasive.

Talos must have ventured close to a taboo, something that was not shared with non-Dashade or not considered fit to speak of by them. He was intrigued and curious, feelings that had always evoked in him the greatest pleasure and anticipation. He was going to _learn something new._ Possibly something the Dashade had never revealed or that had been lost with their planet and most of their population.

"What life events are those?" he asked carefully.

Khem Val turned his back on Talos. "Your species, most of the Empire species, do not require the offering," he said. "Instead you have an organ that generates the concentrated life force to place into a partner in order sometimes to combine two beings to bring forth a third."

Talos walked through that complex sentence in Dashadi and certain aspects of the letter's cautions about the ritual became much clearer. "Are you saying that eating a small part of another Dashade is what you do to make Dashade babies?" He struggled not to laugh. It wasn't actually that funny. 

"The offering is concentrated by its offerer into a small portion of his body and the eater accepts and consumes the offering. If Mistress Death is pleased by the offering, a life may be released from her captivity into the eater and it will bear the life force of both."

Talos found himself fascinated. "Then, since I am not Dashade, and as you said I can generate the--" he had to pause to stifle his laughter again, so inappropriate --"concentrated life force then if you ate that, do you think the altar would accept that as having completed the ritual?"

"Yes," Khem Val said. "I did not know that was possible?"

Talos thought because of the wording of that question that Khem Val was pleased. "What was possible?"

An enormous clawed hand gestured vaguely. "For you to produce life force, as you said."

"It is," Talos assured him. He often masturbated to fantasies of discovering new archaeological knowledge. It would not be a problem to get off to the real thing.

It wasn't. All he had to do was unfasten his pants, slide them down his hips, and take himself in hand. Closing his eyes, Talos mentally composed the definitive article on Dashade reproductive ritual behavior, tugging at his cock with each completed line. It had a lot of repetition as he lost his place and started over, but first drafts were messy. His hand moved faster, his breathing sped up. His face began to feel hot, and there was a smell -- not good, rank really, but it was also kind of arousing, a fetid musky scent, esters and organosulfates mixing pungently, what _was_ that, and his eyes opened. 

Khem Val was leaning over and _breathing_ on him, gapey bristling mouth leaking hot gases onto Talos's abdomen as he closely watched the progress of Talos's _offering_. There was a strange fluid leaking from the bulbous glands along his jaw, and that seemed to be the source of the smell.

A droplet of the fluid slowly gathered, ready to fall. It dripped onto Talos's shirt, soaking in and making a dark, irregular splotch on the blue-gray cloth. He came with a grunt and a long sigh, carefully catching the result. He offered it in the palm of his hand to Khem Val. 

The Dashade took the offering carefully with a pair of claws, not letting it drip until he leaned his head back and dripped the entire small mass of it into his maw. The enormous muscles bunched at the sides of Khem Val's neck.

The lights around the altar went out, a secret exit door grated open, and Talos was able to sit up, then stand. He pulled his trousers up, tucked himself neatly into them and fastened the hook-and-loop fabric, then the buckle.

"Although your flesh does not have enough of the Force to eat, your concentrated output was pleasant. It is good that we found such a solution." As he spoke, Talos was assembling the treasures they should take with them into a large metal chest.

"Yes. We're a good team." Talos grinned. "Are there many rituals like that?"

"This was not a ritual, precisely. A test to determine worthiness to remain on the homeworld, by reproductive fitness. Shadow-killers such as I failed this test, refused to be offerings, and were sent away. All we may do is bond to a force wielder and serve as bound companion, as I did with Tulak Hord."

"For those who did pass, were there further reproductive rites?" Talos took every mental note as Khem Val explained what he remembered of the mating rituals of the denizens of Urkupp. They walked together out the secret back way, Khem Val carrying most of their findings in a large chest, Talos the more delicate pieces in a suspension box.

The archaeologist no longer expected to die on the unnamed planetoid. In fact he felt more sanguine about the future than he had since he'd learned of the existence of the Eternal Empire. What an opportunity Tibo Rontes's tomb had turned out to be in the end. Talos had a chance to discover the secrets of lost Urkupp thanks to the growing rapport between him and Khem Val and all he'd had to do was, after all, what he wanted to anyway. 

The fact that there was enough force concentrated in his semen to nourish the Dashade and that they both enjoyed the process a great deal was surprising and useful and it was most likely not going to go into his report. Maybe in the papers that would be published after his death.

Taboos were there for a reason. Better to do it in the moment than talk about it. And he was as safe as could be. He set their course onward to more artifacts for Khem Val, more knowledge for the archaeological record.


End file.
